Tim Cook gave a speech today for the top brass at Goldman Sachs, giving investors at the banking giant's Technology and Internet Conference one of his most expansive public talks on Apple's strategy to date. Investors were less than impressed, and the stock closed down 2 percent at $467.84.

There were, however, a few nuggets of interest for the general Apple watcher. Here's the key takeways:

Apple is "not a hardware company"

Cook was at pains to dismiss concerns over the company's shrinking margins on its mobile devices, noting that Apple was "not a hardware company." It was so important he said it twice. In other words, Apple still has a massively profitable content and app ecosystem in iTunes, so it's not necessary that it maintain high margins to keep delivering growth to shareholders. As long as everyone who buys an Apple device buys into its ecosystem, Apple is able to monetize no matter what the margins are. It doesn't hurt that its margins are still considerably greater than rivals in the space like Amazon, either.

Shareholder lawsuit is a "silly sideshow"

Cook sounded uncharacteristically peeved about a lawsuit by David Einhorn that seeks to get Apple to kick down some of its $137 billion cash horde to investors in the form of a secondary offering or some sort of buyback.

"I find it bizarre we find ourselves being sued for doing something that's good for shareholders," he said. "It's a silly sideshow, honestly. I think it would be a lot better use of funds to donate that time and money to a worthy cause."

Acquisitions? Don't count on it.

Some people think Apple should use its ginormous $137 billion cash reserve to make a major acquisition (some are even calling for it to buy troubled PC-maker Dell, which is a bit like asking Thomas Edison to buy a lamp oil manufacturer). Tim Cook mostly dismissed those calls, saying that it's looked into making bid deals in the past and they haven't "passed the test."

Industries:

Comments

If you are commenting using a Facebook account, your profile information may be displayed with your comment depending on your privacy settings. By leaving the 'Post to Facebook' box selected, your comment will be published to your Facebook profile in addition to the space below.